Attitudes toward Success and Failure

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Alaoui, Larbi; Penta, Antonio
• 署名单位: Pompeu Fabra University; ICREA; Pompeu Fabra University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20240429
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: parameter-free elicitation; CUMULATIVE PROSPECT-THEORY; Aspiration level; loss aversion; rational-expectations; UTILITY THEORY; probability; CHOICE; DECISION; preferences

摘要

Individuals often attach a special meaning to attaining a certain goal, and getting past a threshold marks the difference between success and failure. In this paper, we take a standard expected utility (EU) setting with an exogenous reference point that separates success from failure and define attitudes toward success and failure as features of preferences over lotteries. The distinctive feature of our definitions is that they concern a local reversal of the decision-maker's risk attitude across the reference point. Our findings provide a unified view of several well-known models of reference-dependent preferences and suggest new forms of comparative statics exercises.